"Why did you let us swam at this time of the year?" I exclaimed to Spider.
We were both now sitting on the beach, frizzing our asses off. The wind was strident, it kept slapping my cheeks with its cold breeze, making them more and more pink.
"Me? You tricked me into the idea."
"Fair enough." I chuckled bouncing my shoulder on his. I looked through my bag and find what I had been searching for.
"You smoke?" He asked.
"Only when I'm very drunk. And it is the case. You want one?"
He shook his head to decline. I inhaled the smoke in my lungs, only drunk me loved cigarettes this much. I looked up to the dark sky full of tiny lights. Stars. How I loved stargazing.
"Are you those girls who are like super into astrology."
"Astronomy dumbass. The studying of stars is astronomy." I laughed as did he. His cheeks turned pink which I remembered finding it so cute. His dark blue eyes stared directly into my soul. It made me shriveled or maybe it was the cold water dripping from my hair. He started to lean in, I was ready for him to kiss me once again.
"Oi! Can't run now motherfucker."
"Fuck." He mumbled looking behind me.
I turned around and discovered the guy from earlier. The guy that he had punched when defending me. He had a baseball bat in his hand. This cannot be good. Spider quickly stood on his feet, pumping his chest trying to be intimidating.
"Cheers sexy." The guy said walking towards us, I made a disgusted face.
I got up too and joined Spider. He put his arm in front of me, he didn't want me to step further. He didn't want me to get close to the guy. But as stubborn as I was, I wouldn't let someone, let alone a man, tell me what to do.
"You think you can punch me and get nothing in return. An eye for an eye mate."
"You got what you deserved. You really thought you could assault a girl without having to face any consequences."
"You're a pig." I added tossing Spider's arms out of my way and stepping closer to the guy.
"You women are so entitled. You teased me girl, with those clothes, you basically asked for it."
I scoffed.
"Look at you, now. How about I warm you up, babe." The guy continued saying inappropriate thing that made me feel both angry and scared.
"How about I-" I started.
"Enough." Spider firmly said to me as he went in front of me, blocking my view of the guy.
"Are you for real?"
"You'll get us in trouble."
"We already are. Don't you see?"
"And whose fault is that?" He raised an eyebrow.
"You're kidding right? You're the one who punched him, I never asked you to do that."
"Let's go."
Before I could reply anything, Spider's head slammed onto mines, busting my lips and forehead open. We both fell down on the sand, Spider hitting his head on a branch. The guy had swung his baseball bat on his back. Spider coughed on the ground.
"Oi! What the fuck?" I screamed wiping off blood on my lips.
The guy put his hand on my face, squishing my cheeks together so hard I could feel my teeth scratching the insides of it.
"Let's hear what you have to say now." He said through gritted teeth. I felt powerless. "Or we could finish what we started before."
He leaned in and gave a wet kiss on my jaw. Disgusting. Spider finally got back on his feet and pushed him off of me, once again. He stumbled and fell on the sand and we took that as our opportunity to run. I had never run like this, I seriously thought I was running for my life.
"JJ! JJ!"
Darren shook my still very sleepy body. They kept calling my name. I finally opened my eyes. After that whole Amerie and Spider incident, I had decided to sleep with Quinni and them. I didn't have time to fully woke up that they pushed me in the hall.
"What are you wearing?" They looked me up and down. "Is that-" They gasped with still a smile on their lips.
I looked at the shirt. Fuck.
"Don't. There's nothing to tell. It was over before it even began. I was wrong about him."
They both nodded. Quinni gave me a hug, I love how she always comforted me the best. I knew that sooner rather than later I would have to talk to Amerie. And to Spider. But not right now. Right now, I needed to focus on the protest and getting my mother's job back. We went back in and as we passed Woods' office, I took a squeaky dog toy. I went in the grand room where everyone was sleeping and rapidly squeaked the toy multiple times. They all annoyingly groaned and slowly started waking up to the sounds.
"Oi! People listen up!" I shouted. As more eyes started to open, they all noticed Spider's shirt on my back. I made it look like it wasn't a big deal. Yeah we had sex, whatever. But my heart had been shattered into tiny pieces. I was wrecked. "The protest isn't over until Miss Jones is back in class with us! Let's get it over with."
People slowly clapped with less energy than yesterday. But they still got to the window and started faintly chanting. As I went into the principal's office, I stumbled onto Amerie sitting at the desk. She started clumsily explaining herself but I cut her off.
"I'm not mad at you, Am."
"I didn't remember it until last night. I was so drunk and I swear I would've told you... if there was really anything to tell."
I took her by the shoulders, shaking her body a bit to make her understand.
"Amerie. Stop this nonsense. You didn't lie to me, he did."
"About that. How are you holding up?"
"I'll be okay."
We each gave the other a comforting smile. Our conversation got interrupted by Quinni's scream. She was by the window when she saw what we all had hoped for.
"It's Miss Jones! She's back!"
We all turned around to face the windows and we saw my mother with the other parents and Miss Woods. Darren and her quickly opened the window.
"Miss, please come back. We want you back." Darren said in a desperate tone.
"We don't want to be anyone else's SLTs. We want to be your SLTs." Quinni added.
I finally locked eyes with my mother, we smiled at each other. She would never openly admit it, but I knew she was proud of me. She was touched that her teaching had had such an impact on us.
"Uh, I think we're about to get dragged out of here, people." Cash called out referring to the firefighters entering the school grounds.
We heard them break open the doors we had locked the previous day. We all jumped to the loud sound of the door getting kicked down. Students quickly got out of the building. Soon, only Spider and I were the only ones left. As I was about to exit, that's when he decided to speak up.
"I never meant to hurt you."
"You should of thought about that before you did."
I left him there and exited the building. Everyone was gathered around my mother, happy to see her back and hugging her. We spotted each other and I ran into her arms.
"I'm so sorry, mum!" My voice muffled in the deep of her neck.
She shushed me and broke our embrace. Her smile slowly fading.
"Are those boys clothes you wearing?"
"No. It's my gym clothes." I tried to convince her with a rather awkward and forced smile. "Okay, see you at home!"
I let other students get a glimpse of conversation with my mother and walked out of the court with my friends. With them being by side, I knew everything was going to be okay. I could go through anything.
"Can you guys stay over at my place tonight? I don't want to be alone."
"Of course, babes. We'll stop by Harry's and get some burgers." Darren responded.
"And milkshakes!" Quinni exclaimed.
"Yes, let's eat our emotions." Amerie added.
That night I told them everything. Every moments I had shared with Spider starting with the night of the festival. How I fell for him despite he was literally the worst person to fall in love with. I didn't share Amerie's secret, it wasn't mine to tell and I don't think I would have been able to hold my tears. After everything, they were supportive even if they wanted to protect me.